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Adolescent Study of Obesity

Intra-Abdominal Fat and Risk of Disease in Adolescents Study

This resource includes 130 lymphoblastoid cell lines from children participating in the Intra-Abdominal Fat and Risk of Disease in Adolescents Study, a longitudinal study investigating the mechanisms relating obesity to increased disease risk in White and African American adolescents. Ethnicity was defined on the basis of self-reported ethnicity status of the children's parents and grandparents. Eligibility criteria for inclusion were

  1. age > 4 years;
  2. absence of medications known to affect body composition or physical activity, e.g., prednisone, methylphenidate, and growth hormone;
  3. absence of previous diagnosis of diseases known to affect body composition, fat distribution, or both, e.g., Cushing syndrome, Down syndrome, type 1 diabetes, and hypothyroidism; and
  4. absence of diagnosis of any major illnesses since birth.

All children returned annually for follow-up visits over three to six years. Data available for the individuals in this resource include 432 study visits. Observations documented and provided include height, weight, fat mass, lean tissue mass, waist and hip measurements, triceps skinfold, subcutaneous abdominal adipose tissue, intra-abdominal adipose tissue, bone mineral content, bone mineral density, fasting total cholesterol, high density lipoprotein, low density lipoprotein, fasting triglycerides, peak oxygen consumption during an exercise test, and fasting glucose and insulin levels.

The cultures from these subjects form a unique resource for aging research, including the development of metabolic disease, because of the extensive database of anthropometric measurements on each donor, the range of donor ages (from 6 to 14 years), and the availability of a karyotype for each culture.

The collection contains samples from 130 individuals: 75 Whites, 54 African Americans, and one Asian. There are 67 unrelated individuals, 21 sib pairs and 7 sib trios. Table 1 provides information on the age distribution of this study population by gender and ethnicity. Table 2 details the number of visits by ethnicity and gender (Each number is hyperlinked to the specific samples).

Table 1. Distribution of Ages among the Study Participants by Ethnicity and Gender

  African American White Asian Total
Age, in years Males Females Males Females Males Females  
6 0 1 1 0 0 0 2
7 3 3 4 4 0 0 14
8 5 4 5 4 0 0 18
9 8 5 5 10 0 1 29
10 2 2 5 8
 0 0 18
11 5 11 5 11 0 0 32
12 0 3 1 6 0 0 10
13 0 2 2 2 0 0 6
14 0 0 0 2 0 0 2
Total 23 31 28 48 0 1 131

Table 2. Sample Size Across Repeated Measures by Ethnicity and Gender

  Number of Repeated Measures
Group 3 4 5 6
White Males (n=23) 6 7 4 0
White Females (n=42) 10 18 6 4
African American Males (n=21) 2 9 9 0
African American Females (n=31) 7 4 16 1

Additional publications relayed to this study can be found at 
http://www-hsc.usc.edu/~goran/publications%20in%20pdf%20format.htm.

Publications Describing the Collection: 
1. Li C, Johnson MS, Goran MI. Effects of low birth weight on insulin resistance syndrome in caucasian and African-American children. Diabetes Care  24: 2035-2042 (2001). PMID: 11723079

2. Goran MI, Gower BA. Longitudinal study on pubertal insulin resistance. Diabetes  50: 2444-2450 (2001). PMID: 11679420

3. Goran MI, Bergman RN, Gower BA. Influence of total vs. visceral fat on insulin action and secretion in African American and white children. Obes. Res.  9: 423-431 (2001). PMID: 11500522

4. Johnson MS, Figueroa-Colon R, Huang TT, Dwyer JH, Goran MI. Longitudinal changes in body fat in African American and Caucasian children: influence of fasting insulin and insulin sensitivity. J. Clin. Endocrinol. Metab.  86: 3182-3187 (2001). PMID: 11443186

5. Huang TT, Johnson MS, Figueroa-Colon R, Dwyer JH, Goran MI. Growth of visceral fat, subcutaneous abdominal fat, and total body fat in children. Obes. Res.  9: 283-289 (2001). PMID: 11346669

6. Goran MI. Metabolic precursors and effects of obesity in children: a decade of progress, 1990-1999. Am. J. Clin. Nutr.  73: 158-171 (2001). Review. PMID: 11157310

7. Sun M, Gower BA, Bartolucci AA, Hunter GR, Figueroa-Colon R, Goran MI. A longitudinal study of resting energy expenditure relative to body composition during puberty in African American and white children. Am. J. Clin. Nutr.  73: 308-315 (2001). PMID: 11157329

8. Herd SL, Gower BA, Dashti N, Goran MI. Body fat, fat distribution and serum lipids, lipoproteins and apolipoproteins in African-American and Caucasian-American prepubertal children. Int. J. Obes. Relat. Metab. Disord.  25: 198-204 (2001). PMID: 11410820

9. Goran MI. Visceral fat in prepubertal children: Influence of obesity, anthropometry, ethnicity, gender, diet, and growth.Am. J. Human Biol.  11: 201-207 (1999). PMID: 11533944